Free Republic

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — The mayor of Champaign is drawing criticism for saying he doubts President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Mayor Jerry Schweighart's videotaped comments were posted online and led to criticism at a City Council meeting Tuesday from some black residents. They suggested Schweighart's doubts are based on the president's race.

Revelations in the Peoria Journal Star earlier this week that the Peoria/Champaign area is one of seven in the United States on a terrorist “circuit” were frightening. “Terrorists enter the United States in San Francisco and Los Angeles, then move to Phoenix, then Denver," reported Phil Luciano of the PJS. "From there some head to Peoria and Champaign. Some terrorists remain in those communities, while others head on to New York City" (emphasis added). Luciano was provided this information by Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy, who received it at a recent FBI conference held in Springfield. Names of larger cities...

Soon the tentacles of the BALCO doping case had reached into professional baseball and football, into Olympic track and field, into championship boxing, into the very consciousness of the American sports fan. There was grand-jury testimony and U.S. Anti-Doping Agency sanctions and congressional hearings with pumped-up athletes stuffed into designer suits talking about designer steroids. And now the trail has led to a three-story beige building in the cornfields of central Illinois, to a nutritional supplement company called Proviant Technologies and what investigators believe is the true genius behind the whole operation. To a 39-year-old organic chemist who signed off...

Richard Clarke came to speak on the Univ. of Ill. campus, and expressed an interest in winning the war by winning the war of ideas. You can read the Daily Illini pre-coverage here and my news/blog article on the speech itself here. Thoughts on Clarke? Does he have valid points to bring up? Or an alterior motive? He was a decent speaker and it was a packed crowd the overflowed into another room where another packed audience watched the lecture on monitors. He took a few jabs here and there (Fox news and Bush's desire to recreate the blackboard of...

Peoria County sheriff says Champaign also among 7 stopovers Former West Peorian Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been locked up as an enemy combatant, but his terrorist comrades continue to work in central Illinois. Peoria and Champaign are part of a seven-city "circuit" that moves and disperses terrorists to specific sites across the nation, says Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy. McCoy got that information at a recent FBI conference in Springfield. He shares that snippet of intelligence not to panic central Illinois, but to stress what the FBI told police at the conference: America, including much of its law-enforcement community,...

Former West Peorian Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been locked up as an enemy combatant, but his terrorist comrades continue to work in central Illinois. Peoria and Champaign are part of a seven-city "circuit" that moves and disperses terrorists to specific sites across the nation, says Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy. McCoy got that information at a recent FBI conference in Springfield. He shares that snippet of intelligence not to panic central Illinois, but to stress what the FBI told police at the conference: America, including much of its law-enforcement community, has not taken seriously enough the threat of al-Qaida...

Former West Peorian Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri has been locked up as an enemy combatant, but his terrorist comrades continue to work in central Illinois. Peoria and Champaign are part of a seven-city "circuit" that moves and disperses terrorists to specific sites across the nation, says Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy. McCoy got that information at a recent FBI conference in Springfield. He shares that snippet of intelligence not to panic central Illinois, but to stress what the FBI told police at the conference: America, including much of its law-enforcement community, has not taken seriously enough the threat of al-Qaida...

April 5, 2003; Hundreds of flags, patriotic music and the Pledge of Allegiance from a powerful PA system manned by local DJs, positive enthusiastic responses from most of the thousands of people driving past, an array of flags from Coalition countries, back-packed coffee urns moving up and down the line of 250-300 Pro-American Troop-Supporting Patriots who braved the cold windy conditions this past Saturday to stand shoulder to shoulder lining a couple of blocks along the East side of Prospect Avenue. Uncle Sam was there as a group of hardy, leather-clad, flag-waving Harley riders. Red, white and blue cup cakes,...

   CHAMPAIGN – The organizer of a Pro America rally on North Prospect Avenue says today's crowd should be much larger than last week's.    The rally is competing for space on Prospect Avenue to try to influence Saturday shoppers. For more than six months, a Prospect For Peace rally has been held from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturdays.    The Pro America Rally will run from 1:30 to 4 p.m., with an oversize flag, music and miniature flags.    Organizer Mark Thompson said he has contacted groups and expects hundreds of people.    The first week, the rally never had more than about 60...